Your World
by Adreus
Summary: A collection of shorts. 3: Ratatosk is boring. That's all Richter has to say when someone asks about his roommate.
1. Selfish

**Author's Note: **_Your World _is a collection of _Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World_ shorts, mostly because they aren't long enough in my opinion to warrant individual submissions. Titled for the second (originally the first, but I shifted the order while editing), all fics in this collection will contain **spoilers**; many will contain Ratotosk/Marta/Emil.

**Selfish: **Assume normal ending.

* * *

Marta will die.

She will, he knows this. Marta is human and he is a summon spirit. To him a hundred years should be akin to the blink of an eye. He should regret his stupidity. He, Ratotosk, who murdered Aster in cold blood and assumed his shape for his own selfish gains. Emil regrets the murder, even if Emil was not the one who did it.

Ratotosk is selfish.

He's selfish, because without killing Aster he never would have met Marta, never would have fallen in love. Regretting killing Aster would be regretting meeting Marta. Aster is less important than Marta. Emil pretends not to realize this.

"A hundred years of life, sacrificed for an eternal love," says Verius emotionlessly. Ratotosk doesn't remember when he arrived.

Ratotosk sighs, looking over lazily at the other summon spirit. "We summon spirits shouldn't have hearts," he remarks.

"You did not," Verius points out.

"Why are you here?" Ratotosk asks, his hands balling into fists.

"I am wherever a heart is," Verius reminds him. There is silence, and then he adds: "...You may want to make room for my second altar. I'll be here a while."

Ratotosk raises an eyebrow.


	2. Your World

**Your World: **So I realize that the characters like to not notice Emil's eye color changing but _I don't care._ Spoilers, obviously, and this is what I like to call "sexless sex" so I'd skip over it if you're not into that sort of thing.

* * *

There is something simply divine about being above him, at last naked so that she may see her lover's body—tan and handsome and when she catches his eyes he is beautiful. She loves him, she knows, she loves Emil, and he smiles despite himself because he loves her, too. His smile is sweet and reminds her of his innocence from before everything had happened. She marvels at his ability to be who he is-and she would have him no other way.

She kisses him, and he, the same as always, blushes. At her touch, at her kiss—Emil would always live with this bliss.

"Emil," she wants to say there is no need to be embarrassed but she finds herself in a whirl turned over—he is above her, she is below, and his eyes are closed. Fiercely he captures her in another kiss, passionate and this time she can taste a fire somewhere within, and she knows even before he opens his eyes that this is Ratotosk.

Red eyes Ratatosk, green eyes Emil; to her they're one and the same.

"I love you," she whispers, and he kisses along her body warm and lovely and more than she'd ever dreamed of.

Two voices become one: "And I you."

Emil and Ratotosk, night and day. They—he—is the world, and _her_ world—and she is his.


	3. Roommates

**Roommates: **Assume normal _or _perfect ending. I was thinking of an AU as I wrote this. This is more confusing and I'm not very satisfied with it, but... here it is, anyway. It's kind of an extended metaphor: Ratatosk and Richter being hardworking college roommates to Ratatosk and Richter being stuck together, each working on their separate projects (mana, and keeping the door sealed, respectively).

* * *

Ratatosk is boring.

That's all Richter has to say when someone asks him about his roommate. It's the truth, after all—all Ratatosk ever does is work on his project, the one he's been working for _god_ knows how long. His stupid, long, unfounded project that probably won't work, that Richter doesn't even understand, because Ratatosk refuses to explain any more than he has already. So now Richter doesn't care, and he works on his own stupid, long, and unfounded project that probably won't work either.

Still... Sometimes Richter notices Ratatosk's faraway expression as he stares out the window, thinks for a moment and then returns to his work, newly inspired to work harder, faster.

Then Richter scolds himself for feeling sympathetic, because this was _Ratatosk_ he was thinking about. Ratatosk, who had no right to play the part of someone without their other half, someone without their best friend. After all, he—he'd—

As Ratatosk searches for a way to speed time, Richter looks for a way to free them both.


End file.
